Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

I had mixed feelings about seeing Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 magnum opus “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.” Set in 1969, it weaves the semi-fictional account of an actor in a downward career slump (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend/stuntman (Brad Pitt) into the true story of the Manson murders, specifically of Sharon Tate and her friends. Knowing how brutal the murders were, I was not anxious to see those splashed on the big screen; however, Tarantino’s conversion of current Hollywood back into the 1969 version was intriguing to me, especially since I saw some of the façades that Barbara Ling and the production team so carefully recreated during a few visits of mine to Hollywood. Let me get my comments out of the way on that topic first.

Much attention was obviously spent on putting the façades back to 1969, recreating period wardrobe, picking the correct vintage autos, and choosing just the right film stock, lighting, and angles to put the viewer back into that era. For the most part it works and the team should be credited. Interviews I have seen show them patting themselves on the back for doing it all “old school” and not using CGI. While this is commendable, it really doesn’t matter to the majority of viewers who just want to be immersed into a well-made film. Nit-picky me was thrown out of that 1960’s world when I saw street signs and freeway signs that had not been changed; why go to the trouble of putting vintage brochures in a shop window (that probably can’t be seen) and then let street signs stay in the present era? I don’t think the viewer would have held a CGI effect against Tarrantino. That’s the end of my little rant. 

The first time I saw the movie, I found myself getting increasingly bored and restless as the plot continued on. I thought Brad Pitt was masterful in his restrained portrayal of a badass stuntman; Leonardo DiCaprio was a little bit more messy in his characterization of an actor who was on the verge of becoming a has-been; there was too much time spent on showing this rather than moving the plot along. That would be my major complaint; too many unnecessary subplots and too much time driving points home that could easily have been understood by an audience with less waste of film stock. 

It seemed like Tarantino had a difficult time letting go of the extraneous parts that had special meaning to him, but not necessarily important to the storyline. One somewhat uncomfortable sequence shows a fight between Pitt’s character and Bruce Lee (Mike Moh). Lee is portrayed as an egotistical jerk, and Tarantino included a long sequence to explain why stuntman Cliff Booth (Pitt) wasn’t having an easy time getting hired for a particular film because of the director (Kurt Russell) and his wife. Flashbacks of Booth’s stormy relationship with his own wife and the fight sequence with Lee are purely extraneous, and for fans of Bruce Lee, probably offensive.

Margot Robbie does an excellent job of channeling the luminous Sharon Tate. I enjoyed watching her scenes, which were obviously designed to give a sense of what a kind and caring person she was. This knowledge makes her senseless death even more tragic.

 

The actors playing the Manson gang members were chilling. I cannot give enough kudos to all of them. When Pitt’s character visited Spahn Ranch, I was on the edge of my seat during that entire sequence.

By the time the plot arrives at the point that I knew the Tate murder would be occurring, I was extremely uncomfortable. I even had my finger on the fast forward button. Without giving the plot of the movie away, all I can say is that this is where Tarantino shows his brilliance. It is one of the very few times that I could say the violence shown was cathartic. The last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie found me praising the film and actually wanting to watch it again, which I did. The second viewing was more enjoyable, as I was able to catch more production details and character nuances. The choices of what was shown made much more sense., too I still stand by my earlier comments about this film needing a good edit job to make it more compelling and less rambling. Overall, I’d give it a B+.

Seeing this film made me want to go back to LA/Hollywood and re-shoot some of these iconic locations:

See more Daveland vintage and contemporary Hollywood photos at my main website.

A Daveland Relationship Guide

For Valentine's Day 2014, I’ve put together a list of the 10 Types of Relationships that you can find in the movies (and in real life, too). You will most likely recognize a few.

1. Opposites attract

In the movie "Pretty Woman," a wealthy businessman (Richard Gere) finds true love with a hooker (Julia Roberts). Audiences soon find out that they do share one thing: they both screw people over for money. See...if you look hard enough, we all have something in common!

In "All That Heaven Allows," Jane Wyman is a widowed socialite who falls for a rustic gardener, played by Rock Hudson. I wonder if he continued to trim her...trees...after the wedding?



A virginal young Australian and the leader of a greasy high school gang fall for each other in "Grease," which teaches the lesson that while smoking may be bad for your health, it does help you find true love.



2. Revenge on Mama

What better way to piss your mom off than to dump your rich wealthy boyfriend and take up with a drifter? In "Titanic," Rose (Kate Winslet) does just that, ruining mama's chances at having a privileged life.



3. The Rebound

Great therapy for the person who is rebounding, but not so great for the person who eventually gets dumped. In "Bye Bye Birdie" Rosie (Janet Leigh) is heartbroken that her boyfriend (Dick Van Dyke) has chosen mama (Maureen Stapleton) over her once again, so she decides to go out on the town and have some fun. Rebound or not, I am sure that these nerdy shriners just didn't care. In a scanty bright yellow fringed outfit, the shapely Leigh would be one heartbreak worth experiencing!



4. Can't Buy Me Love

A wealthy faded movie star and a two-bit writer without a dime in his pocket. That's the premise of "Sunset Boulevard." Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) gives new meaning to the word "crazy." It's no surprise that Joe (William Holden) decides he'd rather eat moldy bread than have caviar and champagne. See...the old adages are all true. Money can't buy you happiness, and it surely can't buy you love. At least not long-term.



5. Wanting What You Can't Have/Shouldn't Have/Cat and Mouse

For the most part, this one is pretty true for most of us. If it seems somewhat unattainable, we want it more. In "Back Street," Rae Smith (Susan Hayward) falls for a married man (John Gavin). His alcoholic wife (Vera Miles), who has just taken a drunk tumble, is not about to let go of her meal ticket.



A married sexpot (Lana Turner) and a horny drifter (John Garfield). They should just leave well enough alone, but you know that ain't gonna' happen. BTW, I'd like to know in what neighborhood does "The Postman Always Rings Twice"? I'm lucky if he rings the doorbell once.



She's married to a mobster. He's a slimy womanizing attorney. She plays hard to get. No surprise here...he's going to do what it takes to conquer this one. In "Body Heat," William Hurt gets a life sentence for going after this femme fatale (Kathleen Turner).



Ashley (Leslie Howard) is taken, so naturally Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) wants him.



With her heart belonging to Ashley, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) decides to go after her. Once Ashley is free, Scarlett realizes that she loves Rhett, who finally gets what he wants and then decides, aw the heck with it...I'm going home to mama. In "Gone with the Wind," nobody gets what they want, except for Ashley and Melanie (Olivia DeHavilland), who are cousins. Let's not discuss that. Moving on...



6. The Bromance

Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) were the epitome of a bromance in the 1960's tongue-in-cheek TV series "Batman." Whether or not they did more than just slide down the Batpole together is purely a matter of conjecture. I'll leave that to the tabloids.



7. Wrong Side of the Tracks

Why are bad boys always so hot? Or is that what makes them hot? Valerie Kaprisky is a naive architectural student who gets burned by a scorching hot cop killer played by Richard Gere in "Breathless."



8. Can't Pay The Bills

With his wealth eaten up by taxes, it's no surprise that Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) is going to get hungry. Once he eats at Mildred's (Joan Crawford), Monte's money woes are over, in "Mildred Pierce." Monte ruins a good thing by sleeping with her trampy little daughter, too. For more details of another subset of this relationship, please refer to #5, wanting what you shouldn't have.



A ball-busting gold-digger (Kathleen Turner) finds the perfect mate in a wealthy yet naive doctor (Steve Martin) who has perfected the screw-top brain surgery method in "The Man With Two Brains." Unfortunately for the good doctor, the only thing he gets to screw are his patient's craniums.



9. Lazy Love

Sure, Esther Smith (Judy Garland) is a nice enough girl, but really...shouldn't she have done a little more dating before falling lazily in love with the boy next door? I wonder how long it took for her to get a wandering eye? "Meet Me in St. Louis" ends before we get that answer.



10. The Fixer-Upper

This is a dangerous one. If your partner has a lot of baggage when you first meet them, don't expect that things will get better after the "I Do's." Esther Blodgett finds out the hard way with her boozing hubby, Norman Maine (James Mason) in "A Star Is Born."



She's a frigid kleptomaniac with mommy issues; the perfect Fixer-Upper! Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) uses his best junior psychiatrist skills on Marnie (Tippi Hedren) so that he can create the perfect wife. He might have to wait for the answer, though. Looks like she might be doing some jailtime first.



Not to be totally cynical, here is at least one example of True Love: Samantha (Molly Ringwald) and Jake (Michael Schoeffling) from 1983's "Sixteen Candles." Birthday cake never tasted so sweet!



Did I miss any? Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

See more Daveland Classic Movie & TV photos on my main website.

Django Unchained: An Explosive Film

Last night I stepped out of my vintage world and ventured to the theater to see "Django Unchained." Early trailers for the movie did little to motivate me to see what appeared to be a violent Quentin Tarantino western, but once I found out that Dennis Christopher, one of my favorite actors ("Breaking Away") had a part in it, I decided to give it a try.



I wasn't disappointed.

As with most Tarantino movies, this one is full of graphic violence and uncomfortable moments. The violence (showing bodies literally exploding when shot) I could have done without; the uncomfortable moments make it a more interesting film that begs to be discussed once you exit the theater. That's my kind of movie.



In a nutshell, Django (Jamie Foxx) is a shackled slave whose fortunes change when a bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) needs his assistance in identifying three of the men he must kill/capture. As a forward thinking German immigrant, Schultz is against slavery and treats Django as a business partner, granting him his freedom as well as a new wardrobe (one of the many brilliant comic moments in the movie). Django wants to be reunited with his wife, who was sold off to a different plantation in Mississippi, and Schultz agrees to help him. The plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), is a man with few morals and a twisted sense of fun (watching Mandingo slave fights). Schultz realizes that merely proposing the purchase of Django's wife will not accomplish the goal, and the two decide to pose as buyers of Mandingo Fighters and approach Candie that way.

And that's as much as you need to know. Watch the movie to see how it all unfolds.

Jamie Foxx is amazing as Django, but Waltz steals the show with his even-tempered yet fast acting characterization of the brilliant Dr. Schultz. Waltz is able to take a typically unlikeable character of a bounty hunter and make him someone that the audience positively identifies with and supports. The two of them are one of the best on-screen duos to come along in Western film history.



The rest of the cast is top notch as well. Dennis did a great job as Candie's somewhat slimy attorney. Don Johnson had a fun supporting role as a plantation owner with little regard for his slaves. He is also part of a slightly uncomfortable Ku Klux Klan scene, but if you view the overall message (and the ending) of the movie in the larger sense, you will see that this film neither condones slavery nor is looking for a race war, as some who have reviewed the film have claimed.



Where viewers might find themselves getting fueled up over the controversial elements is that this is a period film, but much of the acting, music, and language used is extremely contemporary. This makes it easy to forget that the plot should be examined in the context of the era in which it takes place: pre-Civil War America.

Samuel Jackson is almost unrecognizable as Candie's trusted house slave, Stephen, who does little to help his fellow slaves.



Franco Nero, who starred in "Camelot" and the original "Django," has an amusing cameo in the movie.



Squeamish viewers might have to turn their heads a few times, but it is well worth it. Check out this Oscar nominated flick (Picture, Supporting Actor-Waltz, Screenplay, Sound Editing, Cinematography) while it is still in the theaters.

See more Classic Movie & TV photos on my Classic Movie & TV photo web page.